Life in the capital has become utterly miserable over the last ten days due to a severe heat wave accompanied with repeated load shedding, an acute water crisis, shortage of gas supply, infestation of mosquitoes, and the resultant near epidemic of diseases like diarrhoea.

The food crisis that hit many developing countries last year is likely to re-emerge following the recession and Asian countries must take measures to protect poor people from rising prices, a UN report said Friday.

Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina yesterday directed the power division and Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Wasa) to act expeditiously in reducing sufferings of the people caused by ongoing water and power crisis.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Hasan Mahmud yesterday admitted that former premier Khaleda Zia had met with Saudi King Abdullah in 2005, apparently correcting Foreign Minister Dipu Moni's statement that the monarch's audience with Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina was the first in seven years.

The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday granted the leave to appeal of Syed Sajjad Mainuddin Hasan alias Azad, one of the convicts awarded death sentence in the sensational Shazneen murder case, against the High Court (HC) verdict confirming his death penalty.

Asian health authorities were on alert yesterday, with some checking passengers and pork products from Mexico, as the World Health Organisation declared the deadly swine flu outbreak a public health emergency of "pandemic potential."

Kumar Sangakkara and Yusuf Abdulla turned in star performances as Kings XI Punjab ran to a 27-run win over Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League Twenty20 match at Newlands in Cape Town yesterday.

Editorial

THE extent of pollution seeping into our rivers is mind-boggling and has been that way for years together. If there ever was any hope that remedial measures would be taken to deal with the problem, it now seems that hope was belied. That much becomes clear through a front-page report in this newspaper yesterday. Pollution in the rivers has reached such an alarming point that now even the groundwater system is getting contaminated. That is most distressing, given that aquifers are recharged from the riverbeds and the water is then made available to the population. Our report, based on the findings of a survey carried out jointly by the World Bank and the Institute of Water Modelling (IWM), points up the dilemma we have before us. We either let the pollution take wider swathes of our rivers or we take decisive action against all those individuals and elements responsible for the degradation of the rivers.

WE express our deep concern over the deaths of some BDR personnel in the custody of the various law enforcing agencies. The issue is important on two counts: one, we are talking about human life; two, we are talking about the image of the country. Bangladesh has an empowered and functional judicial system that can take care of such crimes. Therefore, in no way, extra-judicial measures can be given a blank cheque by anybody. To be candid, unusual deaths of suspects in custody is an endemic problem in this country. Therefore, the explanation of the deaths of BDR men given by representatives of the security forces do not always sound credible enough. Such deaths remind us of the old issue of custodial deaths under the past governments, which have been widely criticised by the people of this country, including this daily. Despite repeated urging, no government launched a vigorous investigation to unearth the truth behind such unwarranted deaths in police custody.

LAW and order in Bangladesh has seldom been good. But never before has it been so bad as now. On earlier occasions, we could at least indulge in wishful thinking that things would improve, our law enforcing agencies would come of age, and, above all, the people at the helm would mature enough to rid us of the menace.

ONCE upon a time Islamic civilisation was a bastion of intellectual debate and freedom of thought. It pioneered algebra and spherical trigonometry, the concept of zero, public hospitals, public libraries and academic degree-granting universities. It gave the world innovative surgical and astronomical instruments, ushered in a scientific revolution in optics and helped lay the foundations of modern medicine.

ABUL Kashem Fazlul Huq lived what many would consider a rich, fulfilling life. Born on October 26, 1873, he breathed his last in Dhaka on April 27, 1962. It is said that the last four years of his life were spent in physical agony, and yet, Sher-e-Bangla, as he has come to be known in history, was one of the pre-eminent Bengali politicians whose entire life was given over to the service of his people.

Exiled Andrew Symonds capped his international comeback with useful allround contributions in Australia's win in the second match against Pakistan on Friday, saying it gave him belief he can still excel.

Saeed Ajmal, the Pakistan offspinner, has been reported for a suspect bowling action. Asad Rauf and Asoka de Silva, the umpires for the second ODI between Pakistan and Australia in Dubai on Friday, said they had concerns over Ajmal's action and hence requested the ICC to review his action.

Kolkata Knight Riders have asked the senior pair of Aakash Chopra and Sanjay Bangar to return to India since they do not fit in the present "scheme of things". The decision was taken after discussions between coach John Buchanan and the team management and while the players were not "happy" they accepted the decision. Both Chopra and Bangar, along with a few injured players will board a flight from Cape Town on Monday.

Arsenal will head into their Champions League clash with bitter rivals Manchester United on the back of a 20 game unbeaten run after Cesc Fabregas ended Arsene Wenger's wait for a win over Middlesbrough by scoring twice in Sunday's 2-0 success here at the Emirates.

Business

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday assured the business community of forming a crisis management fund in the upcoming national budget to provide quick financial assistance to the entrepreneurs hurt by the ongoing global financial recession.

The leather industry is reeling under a shadow of uncertainty and confusion over the government's stimulus package announced last week, as the package has generalised 'leather and leather goods' for the cash incentive.

The prices of un-husked boro rice at Tk 14 and rice at Tk 22 a kilogram, fixed by the government for public procurement, come as news to the farmers who get good productivity, but bad for those who get less, agronomists and farmers said yesterday.

Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) demanded yesterday that the government make a list of illegal recruiting agencies in the country to mitigate the sufferings of the migrant workers and safeguard them from being cheated.

Not long ago the International Monetary Fund seemed headed for relic status. Now it's once more flying high, rolling out ambitious plans to blanket an economically distressed world in dollars. Even grander designs are on the drawing board.

Novartis Bangladesh Ltd has recently joined hands with Novartis AG to celebrate its International Community Partnership Day, an annual voluntary event by the company to benefit people in local communities.

Metropolitan

A public university will be set up in Rangamati to facilitate higher education for indigenous people living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region, said Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid at a seminar yesterday.

The probe committee formed to investigate the vessel capsize in the estuary of the Karnaphuli on April 21 has found a number of faults and negligence of vessel owner and master that led to the accident.

The High Court (HC) yesterday quashed two arms cases against film actor and Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) ward councillor Monwar Hossain Dipjol, in which he was sentenced in absentia to 24 years' imprisonment by the trial court.

A parliamentary standing committee at a meeting yesterday formed a sub-committee to find out a way to resolve the 27th BCS examination issue in line with the prime minister's assurance given to its candidates who were dropped from the list of successful candidates.

A parliamentary standing committee at a meeting yesterday decided to summon officials of Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) and the government officials concerned to explain various irregularities in hajj management.

Australian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Dr Justin Lee yesterday said here that international cooperation for combating terrorism is an imperative as terrorists frequently communicate and operate across international borders.

Two traffic police of Chittagong Metropolitan Police aided by locals caught one of the four muggers at Saraipara Nayabazar under Pahartali Police Station yesterday with their booty of Tk 2.76 lakh, two firearms and a machete.

National

The activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) yesterday placed some demands before the Rajshahi University authorities to meet them before reopening of the university.

There is no hope of early relief from power crisis for the people of Khulna Zone as four of the six power generating plants under Khulna Power Station (KPS) need replacement for resuming their production.

Miscreants stabbed a schoolteacher yesterday at village Bonkola in Sujanagar upazila when he was going to his workplace at 9 in the morning. Kamruzzaman alias Badsha of Bonkola Primary School was shifted to Dhaka Pongu Hospital from local hospital as his condition deteriorated, doctors said. No case was filed till filing of this report yesterday.

Nagarkanda police yesterday recovered a touchstone and a terracotta from a house at Atal village of Dangi union under Nagarkanda upazila. Two persons were arrested for illegally keeping the statue of Radha and terracotta of Bishnu. An arrestee told police that they collected them from the labourer who found the precious antiques while digging a pond near Atal Pashchim Para mosque.

A mobile team of law enforcers yesterday unearthed a fake cosmetic factory at Balashpur in the town and arrested two people in this connection. The team raided a house and seized a huge quantity of fake raw materials of cosmetics and other consumer items and labels of different popular cosmetic0020companies, police said.

Unidentified miscreants exploded two bombs on the premise of Community Policing Office at Mohammodnagar under Batiaghata Police Station. The bombs were hurled from a motorbike. On-duty patrol police chased the bike but could not arrest anyone, said OC Abdus Salek of Batiaghata Police Station.

Ten houses were gutted leaving around 50 people homeless and 10 injured at Taguria village in Chandina upazila yesterday morning. Most of the dwellers were asleep when the fire broke out. The fire originated from a kitchen at about 4:00am and immediately engulfed the adjacent houses, locals said. Two fire-fighting vehicles from the upazila station went to the spot and put out the fire.

A truck, allegedly carrying spurious fertiliser sank in the Bhoirob river when trying to flee mob attack in Abhoinagor upazila yesterday. Mob, however, caught Mosharraf, helper of the truck and handed him over to police but the driver managed to flee. Police and local people said, the truck loaded with 300 bags of adulterated TSP was waiting to cross Bhatpara ferryghat. As people chased the truck it lost control over the wheel and fell into the river. Later, police recovered 203 bags of adulterated fertiliser from the truck.

Army personnel arrested a criminal with one shotgun and two bullets at Aamtolipara under Alikadam upazila yesterday morning. Nurul Islam, 28, who was caught red-handed during a raid was involved in criminal activities in the area for a long time, police said.

Letters

Frequent power outage has made the life of the people all over the country extremely miserable, to say the least. Due to the inability of PDB to provide the required amount of electricity to the people, the load shedding is a familiar phenomenon for all of us for quite a long time now and we are used to it by some extent as well! But the manner in which the load shedding is happening these days has broken all the records of the past. The PDB has to cut the electricity in almost each alternate hour digitally in every locality due to the huge shortfall of power. They are blaming the previous governments and many other factors like shortfall of gas and illegal electricity connections for this present horrible condition. But this blame game will not ease the woes of the sufferers. Once there was a time when we used to tackle the load shedding by using generators and IPS. But those days are gone by now. Since the IPS does not get the required time to recharge due to regular power cuts, so how could it supply electricity every hour? And generators are also running out of oil due to frequent power cuts.

It is strange and a cause for dismay to note that our neighbour, India, is holding the Indian Premier League (IPL) in far away South Africa, instead of their own country, where it indeed should be held. With India having the fourth largest army in the world and a strong para-military force to boot, it is rather inexplicable.

The good news is that our neighbouring state of Tripura in India is going to get bricks from Bangladesh worth Taka 200 crore as quoted by the President of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industries (IBCCI). Very encouraging newsflash indeed, especially at a time when global economic situation is in doldrums.

An opinion poll survey of The Daily Star-Neilsen shows that the Awami League-led government enjoys an encouraging public support in their policies & actions in price control, economic management, and its handling of BDR carnage. The survey also indicates poor or low performance of the government in its handling of students activities and management of the administration and the judiciary.

This is a very important development project for Bangladesh in the long-term perspective. At this juncture, while we have been struggling with many critical internal problems to solve, we need to think deeply about its immediate viability and effectiveness.

Every student feels proud of his own campus. To get extra benefits, students try to be part of politics. So, they follow a political party of their own choice and become members of the student front of that particular party. When that political party is in power, the student activists create anarchy on the campus to dominate over other students or to harass the followers of opposition parties.

Indian Premier League is one of the most enjoyable cricket tournaments in the world. This T20 format has become immensely popular since its introduction in 2008 and it took the attention of the whole world. Finally, it's here. The moment we all have been waiting for. The stadiums are packed, the television is set, and billions of fans wait expectantly for the South African curtains to rise. The masses go hysterical; unfortunately it is a different scenario in Bangladesh. Despite people's great interest we are unable to watch the games due to the recently added agony of the citizens-- 'Load shedding', it has broken all records and we are plunged into darkness when these games are being played. It is so painful that you do not even feel like watching the rest when the electricity is back. We are becoming so used to this poor electricity supply that we hardly talk against it these days.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) is a centre of creating good doctors and it is also a healing centre. Most of the people, especially middle class or lower class people of our country, visit the DMCH. We regard it as an ultimate centre of medicare.

Though living far away from home, I keep monitoring all the events in the country. I sincerely hope that the ex-PM, Begum Khaleda Zia will leave the house honourably before being evicted forcefully. I would like to present three good reasons for my expectation:

We do admire the decision of the government on reducing fees and one stop service in land registration. The present government, out of many action plans, took a wise and beneficial decision for both the common people and the government in terms of disclosing facts and better revenue collection as well.

The massive reshuffle in civil administration conducted by the present AL-led grand alliance in the first 100 days of their assuming power has worried us. Though it is not a new practice in our country, but people hardly know the actual purpose. The rearrangement in various steps has created an atmosphere of uncertainty and the consequence is sluggishness in administration. The government claims that the changes in civil service are necessary. Who is benefited through this practice?

The present Awami League led government's main mandate in the election was to make Bangladesh a prosperous nation by the year 2021. Vision 2021 was the hope held out to the people. And the people believed it and voted for them.

US Navy Seal snipers shot dead the three Somali pirates who were holding American sea captain Richard Philips hostage in a lifeboat. The sharp shooters wearing night vision goggles, fired simultaneously from a moving platform through the small window of the lifeboat which was also moving. With a single shot in their heads all the three pirates were dead instantly. It is just incredible!

A few days back, I went to Mirpur WASA (Adjacent to Bangla College) to buy some Shanti water Jar. When I checked availability of Shanti water with the WASA sales outlet, I did not find Shanti water Jar (20 litre Jar) there. At one stage one staff advised me to collect good water from one water purifying plant located at Mirpur.

International

Making a final push to overrun the last patch of LTTE-held territory, Sri Lankan forces yesterday captured strategic Vlayarmadam area and encircled remaining six sq km strip of land which is the possible hideout of LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and his top aides.

Worried by the "worst" and "unthinkable" possibility of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of the Taliban, the US is pushing Islamabad hard to devise a strategy to regain control of the country, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.

Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud plans to carry out terror attacks in major cities, including Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore, and has despatched his top five commanders along with 300 terrorists and suicide bombers to execute the mission.

Some heavily armed Taliban militants who entered the strategic Buner district near the Pakistani capital from Swat valley are still in the area despite a deal with local authorities for their withdrawal, a media report said yesterday.

Israeli security services have arrested a Palestinian man who allegedly killed an Israeli teenager and wounded a child at a settlement in the occupied West Bank earlier this month, army radio said yesterday.

Arts & Entertainment

Something was missing from the two larger than life replicas of dancing feet -- one donning an Indian classical costume and the other in a ballet outfit -- put at the corner of the stage. Prominent and promising dancers of the country put a pair of dancing bells on them, and the feet looked complete. This endearing gesture marked the inauguration of the two-day dance festival by Srishti Cultural Centre at the National Theatre Stage, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA).

In combination with vision and keen observation, Samiran Chowdhury is now searching for new themes and wants to explain his works differently. The morsels of his lines, tones, textures, and varying mild and bright colours are immersed in his works and have evolved in an abstract style. Samiran is now recognised as a pure abstract painter and prefers to highlight in pleasant splendour the themes of the spiritual world, adoration and emotions.

Local social organisation Participatory Advancement Social Service (PASS) has been working to preserve folk cultural traditions, particularly regional songs of northern Bengal since 2000. Executive director of PASS, Khandokar Mohammad Ali Shamrat told The Daily Star that the organisation believes that the need of the hour is to boost folk songs and other indigenous performing art forms. “Our activists are working with the objective of recovering and preserving the lost and rarely practiced folk songs of Bangladesh,” he said.

“Sassy” is the word that comes easiest to mind when describing an actress like Bea Arthur and the characters she played, most notably on "Maude" and "The Golden Girls." But sassy finally seems too small for Arthur, who died on April 25 of cancer at age 86. It connotes perkiness and feistiness; Arthur, on the other hand, exuded too much stature and presence to possess sassiness -- even to need it, really. Physically (at 59), in her husky voice and in her imperious stature, she was a daunting presence, and even her nimblest one-liners seemed to vibrate up from deep in the earth. Sassy? She ate sassy for breakfast.